YOUNG VOTER APATHY

Apathy Seen as Main Reason

Younger Generations Do Not Vote

Gen X and Z seen as least likely voting generations

The calendar has hit the half-way point of 2019 meaning we are now even closer to the 2020 Presidential election. One of the continuous stories is how generations have different voting habits. And, Americans see this as when asked which generation is most likely to vote in every major election over half (55%) say Baby Boomers while much smaller numbers say Millennials (20%), Gen X (16%) and Gen Z (9%). This is from a survey conducted online by Regina Corso Consulting of 2,261 U.S. adults, 18 and older between June 25 and 26, 2019. And, while each generation is slightly more likely to think their generation is most likely to vote in every election, the top generation selected by each are Boomers.

So why is that? When asked which generation Democratic political candidates primarily focus on, almost two in five Americans (37%) say Millennials, almost one in five say Gen X (18%), less than one in five say Baby Boomers (16%) and over one in ten (12%) say Gen Z with almost one in five (18%) not at all sure. On the Republican side, over two in five Americans (44%) say Republican political candidates focus on Baby Boomers, less than one in five say they focus on Gen X (16%), over one in ten say they focus on Millennials (13%) and less than one in ten say they focus on Gen Z (6%) with one in five (20%) not at all sure.

When asked why younger generations do not vote as regularly as older ones, half of Americans (49%) say it’s because they don’t care, almost half (48%) say it’s they don’t feel any connection with most political candidates and two in five (41%) because they do not have a sense of civic duty. Almost three in ten (28%) say they don’t vote because they are lazy, almost one in five (18%) because they don’t feel the candidates are asking for their votes and smaller numbers because they can’t or won’t take off work to vote (13%) and don’t know how to register to vote (12%). And, half of Millennials (49%) say younger generations don’t vote because they don’t care and almost half because they don’t feel a connection with most candidates. Candidates don’t focus on people who don’t vote and people who aren’t focused on won’t vote. Bottom line is, if younger generations are focused on and they start caring, they will vote.

About Regina Corso Consulting:

Regina Corso Consulting is a communications focused research and insights firm led by public release research expert, Regina Corso. For more information, visit ReginaCorsoConsulting.com.